Saints have the means, but maybe not the opportunity, to snag Odell Beckham Jr. off of waivers

Well, they’ve done it. After spurning the New Orleans Saints’ offer to restructure most of Odell Beckham Jr.’s big base salary into a signing bonus and trade him in exchange for a nice draft pick, the Cleveland Browns ultimately chose to convert most of his salary into a signing bonus and cut him without getting a single bit of compensation.

They won’t get a pick from the Saints, the NFL’s compensatory draft pick formula, or anyone else once Beckham joins a new team. It’s a really badly botched job by Browns general manager Andrew Berry and it’s potentially costing the Saints a big upgrade at their highest position of need. Why couldn’t he have just accepted the trade when he had the chance, man?

The Browns announced Friday that they released Beckham, who must test the waiver wire like every other vested veteran across the league after the annual trade deadline passes. And his restructured contract means any team that claims him will have to count right around $1 million, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. That’s affordable for just about every team in the NFL including the cash-strapped Saints once you factor in the cost of adding him (which would push another contract off their books). New Orleans is under the cap by $1,098,472, per ESPN’s Field Yates, but that number would change by Beckham’s contract replacing a bottom-of-the-depth chart player like Montravius Adams (saving $802,778) or Jalyn Holmes ($715,556).

So the Saints have the ability to add Beckham. They can file a waiver claim on Friday and see if he falls to them. The challenge then becomes waiting to see if that materializes — New Orleans ranks 23rd in waiver priority, trailing other receiver-needy teams including the Detroit Lions (who will get the first opportunity). The full waiver wire order:

So all fans can do is hurry up and wait, and maybe cross their fingers. The NFL doesn’t file waiver claims over the weekend, so we won’t get anything concrete until they’re processed on Monday. There’s no question about whether Beckham could help the Saints win games this year — and they’re no doubt that they could fit his restructured contract on their books. It’s just a matter of whether any of the 22 teams ahead of them in waiver priority decide they’d like to bring Beckham in for a look.